Yes, a headset, headphones or earbuds with a microphone close to your mouth is a firm requirement for every session. Laptops, tablets and phones all have built in microphones, but they sit too far from your face to pick up soft speech. When you go into a deep hypnotic state your vocal cords relax, and you naturally speak very softly or even whisper. A close microphone means I can hear you clearly and guide you in real time, and it means your voice is captured loudly and clearly on the recording you receive afterward.

Yes, a private, quiet room where you will not be disturbed is essential. I tell my clients to plan for both two legged and four legged distractions. A family member walking in, a phone ringing or a dog whining at the door pulls you right out of the deep theta state, so arrange childcare, ask your partner to handle whatever comes up in the house, and turn your phone off. If home is simply too busy, some of my clients stay at a quiet friend's house, sit out in their vehicle, or book a hotel room for the day. Whatever it takes to give yourself a few uninterrupted hours is worth it, because that privacy is what lets you go all the way in.

Dolores Cannon developed the Quantum Healing Hypnosis Technique, known as QHHT, over decades of guiding sessions. Her approach begins with a past life experience and then makes space for a deeper conversation with what she called The Subconscious, her term for a level of awareness beyond ordinary conscious thought. I began studying with her in July 2008 in Fayetteville, Arkansas, after three different people independently told me my work sounded like hers, and I kept returning to study with her for the next four years. I had already been doing hypnosis for five years before I took her first class. As I tell my students, I have taken what I learned and made it my own. The full story of my years with Dolores is in the Teachers and Influences section of my blog.

Yes. Positive talents and abilities from past lives, things like writing, teaching, music or healing, are carried forward in your soul's cellular memory. One client of mine had always been drawn to flying, and on his very first lesson he could handle the plane by instinct, because he had been a pilot in a previous life. When we access those lifetimes in trance, I ask your subconscious mind to bring those positive talents forward with you. What tends to happen is that abilities you have barely touched become easier to learn and to amplify, and clients often find themselves using them in their careers or creative work in ways they had not expected.

I feel that I connect with my own guides, as well as others in spirit, during sessions, and one way I do that is through my pendulum and sometimes muscle testing. I cannot say for sure where the answers come from. It may be my guides, your guides, the Masters of Light I have written about on the blog, or another guide who is a guide to one of your guides, but there is a connection, and the answers come. During an active session they let me quickly double check information, verify the exact identity of the spiritual guides or attachments present, and confirm that an energetic block, a negative contract or an earthbound soul attachment has fully cleared before we move forward. Think of it as a second line on the phone. The answers come through your voice first, and these tools give me a fast, reliable way to check them.

Yes, and the first shift is in how you ask the question. Difficult relationships with parents or siblings are often designed as vital spiritual catalysts. Asking why they are difficult tends to keep you stuck in a victim pattern, so I coach my clients to rephrase and ask what they need to do to have a better relationship or to learn the underlying soul lesson. In a Quantum Healing Hypnosis session, connecting with your Higher Self reveals the pre birth soul contracts you made with your family. That perspective is what allows you to release resentment, establish healthy emotional boundaries and find deep peace. In my experience the relationship often softens once you understand what the two of you agreed to work on together.